Using scatter diagrams

We use scatter diagrams to tell how much correlation there is between two attributes such as height and weight.

Correlation pretty much means co-relation. It shows if there is a relation between two measures. There is quite a strong relationship between our height and weight (at least when we were children).

You can probably think of other things that are related in this way. We are going to use this to tell how close our friends are. Once you’ve done the experiment, you can decide if if really does tell you who your friends are or not.

Choose which order they go in for you and write a 1 next to your favourite all the way down to 6 for your least favourite

Plot each list item on the diagram, for example, if you had apples and you picked 3 and your friend 6, go along 6 for your friend’s choice and up 3 for yours and draw a cross

If you have a straight line going up to the right, you are quite alike. If you have a line going up to the left you are completely unalike (at least as far as fruit goes ;). You might get points all over the place in which case you are not much alike.